Gross wages climb 11.6% in October

The average gross wage for full-time workers in Hungary rose by 11.6% year on year to 365,135 forints (EUR 1,100) in October, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said.Net wages grew at the same pace, reaching a 242,815 forint monthly average. Calculating with twelve-month CPI of 2.9% in October, real wages were up 8.5%. Excluding the 99,200 Hungarians in fostered work programmes, the average gross wage rose by 11.2% to 375,314 forints, while net wages grew at the same rate to 249,584 forints.

Full-time fostered workers earned gross 81,376 forints in October, 0.4% less than a year earlier.

Men employed full-time earned gross 394,100 forints a month on average in the January-October period, while women earned 328,500 forints. Wages rose by 11.5% and 10.1%, respectively, on an annual basis.

In January-October average gross monthly wage was highest in the finance and insurance sector, at 657,500 forints, and lowest in accommodation and catering services, at 236,800 forints.

ING Bank senior analyst Péter Virovácz said the wage growth in October was in the double digits and is expected to maintain that level of growth in the last two months of 2019 but in 2020 wage growth could decelerate because of the easing of labour shortages. He did not rule out, however, that wages could grow by more than 10% in 2020.

András Horváth of Takarékbank said wage growth in October was bigger than expected. In 2020 wages could grow by more than 9% with real wages increasing by 5.5%.